Michigan native Jeremy Landa, formerly a high school social studies teacher and swimming coach, arrived at UConn in the fall of 2015 as one of the Neag School’s first-ever Dean’s Doctoral Scholars. Having recently defended his dissertation in education policy, he now reflects on his experience as a doctoral student, sharing some of his learnings about the Ph.D. process, and himself, along the way.

Editor’s Note: Jeremy B. Landa, Neag School doctoral student in the Learning, Leadership, and Education Policy program, prepared the following issue brief — in affiliation with the Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) — exploring the distribution of Black or Hispanic educators across Connecticut’s school districts.